2013 WTA Sudden Death League: Australian Open

Welcome to the first edition of the 2013 WTA Sudden Death League season: The Australian Open!

Rules of the game:

1. Every day of the tournament that day's matches will be posted. You pick one player who you think is going to win. It's a knock out-system: if the player you picked wins, you're through to the next round. If he loses, you're out.

2. Till the Round of 16, you have to pick one player per day. In the R16, quarters, semis and finals you pick one player per round.

3. During a tournament, you can pick a player only ONCE. Obviously it's important to make smart choices in order to get far. If you somehow have no players left to pick, you're out as well.

4. You can't pick a player from a match that has started already.

5a. If the player you picked retires during the match, you're out. If he retires before the match, you're allowed to change your pick.

5b. If the opponent of the player you picked retires, it counts like a win. However, you can't pick a player whose opponent had already retired from the tournament.

6. If you want to change you pick, make a new post quoting the old pick. Edited posts containing picks will not be taken into account.

Welcome back everyone. Hope you've had a chance to enjoy your rest to get ready for all of the craziness of the WTA!

Some announcements:

Ico is now one of the League Directors. Welcome!

For the 2013 season, this will be a full season. We will be running the following events: the 4 Grand Slams, 4 Premier Mandatory events (Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, Beijing), 3 Premier 5 events (Rome, Canada, Cincy), and the WTA Championships

We will have a WTA Race to the Championships where the Top 8 will compete for a classy prize to be used for the 2014 season

The WTA Championships event will be open to ALL players

Points you've earned at the Olympics last season will be dropped after the Canadian Masters event